UPDATE: Are the traffic cameras issuing tickets yet?

Posted: Mon 7:11 PM, May 21, 2018&nbsp|&nbsp

Updated: Mon 8:27 PM, May 21, 2018

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) - TV9 checked with the Cedar Rapids Police Department on May 21, three weeks after the supreme court decision, to see if the cameras had started issuing tickets and found out that they hadn't yet. Police also told TV9, they would warn drivers before they turned the cameras back on.____

The Iowa DOT has released the following statement on the Supreme Court ruling:

"We respect and uphold the court’s decision. It places in the hands of the legislature, the decision on how to proceed with Automated Traffic Enforcement.

"Cities have the right to proceed with using the cameras moving forward if they chose to. We will no longer require municipalities to report to the DOT regarding cameras on the primary highway system and will not govern their implementation based on safety considerations."________________PREVIOUS STORY:

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled the Department of Transportation can't order cities, including Cedar Rapids, to move or remove traffic cameras from interstates.

The Iowa DOT issued rules in 2014 that made cameras on Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids and on other state highways illegal and ordered cities to move those cameras.

Cities filed a lawsuit against the DOT arguing the cameras improved safety and that the Iowa DOT could not prove otherwise in retroactively applying rules to ban them.

A district court sided with the Iowa DOT in arguing it had jurisdiction over state highways and interstates. Cedar Rapids stopped issuing tickets from the I-380 cameras in April 2017 in response to that ruling.

But the Iowa Supreme Court ruled the Iowa DOT did not have authority to set rules on how cities place and operate traffic cameras and failed to follow proper rule making procedures. The case now goes back to the lower courts.

The 4 sets of I-380 cameras in Cedar Rapids issue by far the most speed tickets of the traffic cameras across the city. The city pointed to reduced fatal crash rates since the cameras went up as reason for their use. A month after the city stopped issuing tickets from the cameras, police reported the number of cars going at least 12 miles over the speed limit at those sections of 380 increased 79-percent.

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